Taught By

燕 连福

教授

韩 鹏杰

教授

龚 建平

教授

张 帆

教授

妥 建清

教授

李 重

副教授

邓 妙子

讲师

雒 自新

讲师

Transcript

Then we come to the fourth aspect: Do not care for wealth or fame There is no ground for blame or for praise It is said in the remark of the fourth Six that Tie up the sack and there is no ground for blame or for praise It implies if you should tie your sack tightly you can avoid making mistakes or being praised but it’s a rather good state condition It tells us that in order to “increase thick virtue” we should be able to resist various temptations We should not pursue wealth fame and gain and all secular stuffs Only in this way can you be able to cleanse your heart and limit your desires be dignified and upright However it is always easy to say but very hard to do In history a lot of celebrities failed to do it and suffered from disastrous consequences Therefore “Tie up the sack and there is no ground for blame” is a rather high demanding The fifth aspect is be content with where we are and we can achieve good fortune and every success It is said in the remark of the fifth Six that “the yellow lower garment brings good fortune” What does it mean? It means wearing yellow clothes can brings us good fortune It should be mentioned that in ancient China clothes for upper body were called upper garment while for lower body are called lower garments Yellow lower garments are yellow clothes In different dynasties people of different ranks wore clothes of different colors People in the Xia dynasty advocated black while those in the Shang dynasty white and those in the Zhou dynasty red So in the Zhou dynasty the King and the members of nobility always wear red clothes While yellow clothes always belong to ordinary people like farmers “The yellow lower garment brings good fortune” means that though you are in high position you should be humble keep low profile and wear ordinary clothes In this way you will have the fortune Duke of Zhou is a good example When he was assisting the King to govern the state though he was in high position He keep low profile He wore yellow clothes to show that he has no intention of arrogation Only by wearing yellow clothes can we be able to have the extreme good fortune As to extreme good fortune In The Book of Changes Fortune and misfortune are classified into at least ten different ranks From the higher ranks to the lower ones they are extreme good fortune very good fortune good fortune being joyous being happy without disaster with misery with disaster with calamity with catastrophe This is the difference in degree Here extremely good fortune is the best one To achieve this state as is clearly stated in The Book of Changes we should be content with where we are A yellow lower garment brings extreme good fortune This is what a man of thick virtue should know What about the sixth aspect That would be: Do not go to extremes because Yin and Yang complement with each other It is said in the remark of Six of the Kun hexagram that Dragons fight in the field Their blood is black and yellow It means that the top Six think arbitrarily that they are the true dragon So they fight with the true dragon the Qian hexagram outside the field They shed black and yellow blood What is black and yellow Because in ancient Chinese’s eyes The color of the sky is black while the color of earth is yellow That’s why it says “Their blood is black and yellow” Here I want to point out that The Book of Changes pay much attention to the mutual complementary relation between Yin and Yang It is said in this book “Alternating between Yin and Yang is called Tao” which means that All things in the world should not be the only one-sided outcome of Yin or Yang but the interaction of Yin and Yang which develops and promotes together With Yin alone Things cannot develop With Yang alone Things cannot develop either From the perspective of The Book of Changes neither Yin nor Yang can generate or grow alone Therefore when the top Six comes to the dead end what is its direction The opposite side - Yang Namely the complementation of Yin and Yang This is the meaning of “Dragons fight in the field” Here I’d like to say that both Yin and Yang are very important We cannot advocate only Qian hexagram be more and more fortunate forever For all things in this world need the complement of Yin and Yang We should consider all things from the two aspects According to American scientist’s prediction one million years’ later there will only be one gender left Which one Female Why is that Because the average life span of woman is longer than man Besides Woman is more suitable for taking care of children And the third reason is the presence of clone So human being may reproduce with only one gender But as far as I’m concerned The Book of Changes has already told us that alternating between Yin and Yang is called Tao So men don’t feel disappointed If only human exists there will be both man and woman This will never change And this is one of the wisdom stated in The Book of Changes That is all for “Increasing thick virtue and carrying all things” Let’s take a break

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